Ghana Football Association suspends Eastern Regional league
Accra (Greater Accra) 11 July 2002 - Intense pressure from foreign-based Ghanaian athletes has compelled the nation’s headcoach S.S. Atuahene to withdraw from the team of Ghanaian technical men to this year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Ghana Review International Sports has gathered.
The coach however, says his stepping out of the Ghanaian athletic coaches to the games is a personal decision made to save the country from imminent embarrassment.
The athletes had threatened to boycott the competition if Atuahene, who they alleged have been involved in visa racketeering and other malpractices whenever he took the team outside the country, is allowed to lead them to the event in Manchester. In separate letters to the Athletics Association of Ghana copied to the Minister of Youth and Sports and President J.A. Kufuor, the overseas-based athletics led by Andrew Owusu and Aziz Zakari issued the boycott threat if the coach travels with the team.
Mr Edward Osei-Kwaku, the sector Minister told the Ghana Review International sports in Accra that the coach had voluntarily withdrawn. According to the minister, he received the letter from the athletes only on Monday and was not happy of the channel that the youngmen have adopted to seek redress. He said however that, “In order to that Ghana is represented in Manchester without any hitch, I quickly set up a committee headed by Mr Joe Aggrey, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports to determine the truth or otherwise of the allegations.”
GRi Sports gathered from the minister that when Mr Atuahene was interrogated, he expressed his innocence of any visa fraud or acts of corruption but decided to step down in the interest of national peace and progress. The minister said much as he appreciates the gesture by Atuahene, he would entreat the athletes to substantiate their allegation during the games or find an appropriate time to do so.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 11 July 2002 - The Armenian Tennis team who are scheduled to play their Ghanaian counterparts in the Euro Africa Zone Two Davis Cup play off arrived in Accra on Tuesday without their number one seed Sazgis Sazgsian, ranked 73rd in the world.
In an interview with the GNA Sports, Alex Tsafoucien Captain (coach) of the Armenian team said the player is likely to touch down in Accra on Thursday, a day to the commencement of the competition. He said the team is in Ghana with one aim- to remain in the Zone two- and would do everything to ensure that their goal becomes a reality.
"Even though in Davis Cup, there is no correlation between rankings and results, factors like home support play a significant role in determining the winner but we are confident to win", said the Armenia Captain.
Tsafoucien said he does not see the sunny weather playing any significant role to Ghana's advantage since Armenia lies south of Europe where the climate is as humid as that of Ghana. Currently, the Armenian team is made up Tsolak Gevozkian the number two seed, Harut Sofyan and Naik Hakobyan.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Youth and Sports (MOYS), Mr Edward Osei Kwaku, is making frantic effort to patch up relations between Henry Adjei Darko, Ghana's number two seed and officials of the Ghana’s Golden Racket, which has resulted in the player’s absence from camp.
He has subsequently tasked Dr Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah, Acting Chief Executive of the National Sports Council (NSC) to liase with the coach of the team and the family to ensure that Darkoh features for Ghana in the three-day tournament.
The minister told GNA Sports in an interview that he sees it as a duty to Ghana and his office to bring his influence to bear on the matter to ensure that the country presents her best team in such a crucial tournament. He said, "in matters of this nature, it is important that everybody puts all pride and bitterness aside to be able to threat the issue at stake without any emotion to ensure that Ghana places above everything."
Adjei-Darko arrived in the country last Monday to participate in the three-day Euro Africa Zone Two Davis Cup play off match against Armenia but has since refused to join the team due to perceived differences between him and officials. With only two days remaining for the competition at the Accra Sports Stadium, all attempts to reach him have proved futile.
GRi…/
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Koforidua (Eastern Region) 11 July 2002 - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has suspended the commencement of the 2002/2003 Eastern Regional Second Division Football season indefinitely.
This was contained in a letter sent to the Eastern Regional Football Association (ERFA) and signed by Mr Kofi Nsiah, the General Secretary of the GFA. According to the GFA, the suspension was to give time for the settlement of issues raised by Highlanders Football Club, one of the 39 second-division football clubs in the region.
Information available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) indicates that Highlanders had forwarded their protest to the GFA without copying the ERFA. On receipt of the protest, signed by Mr Geoffrey Oteng-Arthur, chairman of the division two campaigners and also a member of GFA executive council, the GFA did not seek the version of the ERFA on the issues raised by Highlanders F/C but halted the league indefinitely.
The letter to the GFA dated June 5 complained that Highlanders never received an invitation to the regional congress of the second division clubs in Eastern Region, which was organised on May 20, this year to arrange fixtures for the season. They claimed the club had also not received minutes of the previous congress of the ERFA, the accounts of the Regional Football Association for the previous year and had no information on the number of clubs that had been relegated from the league.
According to them, as at the time of writing their letter, they were aware that the Regional Second Division Football League was to commence on 23 June, but they had not received any fixtures. The letter said no member of the GFA was invited to the regional congress of the ERFA while the financial statement of the association had not been deposited with the GFA as required by FA regulations.
The club therefore called on the GFA to nullify the congress, re-organise the ERFA and ensure that all programmes of the ERFA were approved by the GFA before implementation.
Sources close to the GNA however, indicate that, officials of 35 out of the 39 football clubs participating in the regional second division football league took part in the congress of 20 May, and the invitation to the Highlanders F/C to the congress was in fact sent and delivered by hand at their base at Aburi.
GRi…/
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